EA gives away a huge number of free games... by mistake

A free code that wasn't tied to one account? Oops

Electronic Arts recently ran a survey promotion on its online digital distribution service, Origin. Fill out some questionnaires, get a download code for any $20 game. It's the sort of promotion that happens all the time. But EA's code wasn't tied to the participant's account, nor did it expire after one use. No, with a simple log-out trick, it just kept on giving, allowing some gamers to download loads of games without paying a single penny.

According to Kotaku, the loophole took a good while to fix, by which time countless games had been downloaded. There were some corkers available, too - look at this gamer's 90GB haul:

Above: Some gamers downloaded over 15 games using various accounts

Acquiring free games through an exploit is stealing and it's explicitly stated in the terms of service that taking advantage of exploits will result in termination of your account. But seeing as a lot of people just signed up to Origin as a result, perhaps EA will turn a blind eye this once. Perhaps.